billso.com

I’ve been spending much less time on billso.com and more time wrestling with WebCT during the last 6 weeks, as I’m teaching two additional classes this fall.

Up until August 2008, I was posting at least one article a day on billso.com.

I don’t think I have blogger burnout, but it has been a challenge to juggle all of my current projects.

At this point, I’m barely checking into my Friendfeed and Twitter pages.

My teaching schedule will calm down after December, so I will be spending more time on billso.com by then.

The fall semester starts today at HPU. I’m teaching 2 sections of a freshman course this morning, and my graduate course on Technology Strategy this evening.

I also have online sections of Technology Strategy and Information Systems Management.

I’m using WebCT as my learning management system (LMS) this semester. I’m teaching five sections this term, so I’m cutting back on my blogging.

My students should log in to Campus Pipeline, go to the My Courses tab, and click on the appropriate course link to open WebCT.

During the semester, I will assign articles, videos and links from billso.com as readings in my graduate courses. If WebCT or Campus Pipeline go offline for a day or more, I’ll place announcements on billso.com.

Just a reminder for my HPU students: WebCT is down for maintenance until 1200 HT tomorrow, Thursday, 28 August 2008 1800 HT this evening.

I’ve posted the syllabi and schedules for my graduate courses on the following pages:

• IS 6100
• IS 6700
• MGMT 6050

Image courtesy of 4PIZON through a Creative Commons license.

I’ve posted my Fall 2008 syllabus for Information Systems Management, also known as IS 6100 and MGMT 6050 at Hawaii Pacific University. This is an online course that starts next Tuesday, 2 September 2008.

The document is available here and in WebCT as a PDF file.

I’m using WebCT to manage the course.

We’re using a new textbook this term, too.

I started teaching online courses at my university back in January 2005. This morning’s Honolulu Star-Bulletin features an article about Honolulu universities and their online programs - see Online classes on the rise. As I pointed out in my billso.com articles of 14 July 2008 called Rising gas prices fuel online course enrollments, students are willing to take an online course to save time and money.

I’ve used several different systems to manage these courses:

• Moodle, which I used in the spring of 2005, is an free open source system. It has some good features, including extensive use of RSS feeds. However, the Moodle software has always been a work in progress, so some of its features seem flaky and unstable.
• TurnItIn.com actually has an excellent gradebook system included in the service. I’ve been using that system for the last 3 years. My students seem to prefer this gradebook, but a handful of students have commented that they’d rather use WebCT.

But I haven’t used WebCT as my primary CMS (course management system) for an online course. I’m going to give WebCT another try this fall. Perhaps it has improved after 3 years.

Related articles on billso.com

• 14 July 2008: Rising gas prices fuel online course enrollments
• 27 August 2007: It’s TurnItIn.com, not WebCT, for my Fall 2007 students
• 20 July 2007: Spring 2007 course files have been archived
• 4 May 2007: WebCT and TurnItIn.com are running slowly
• 7 February 2007: TurnItIn.com discussion forums vs blog comments
• 25 January 2007: Why so many web sites?
• 10 October 2006: Why so many popup windows?